Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Did He Really Believe That?

Elementary school kids can be a lot of fun. One on one time is special, and when you have three kids, it's often hard to come by. One night Jeremy and I were able to sit together and watch a movie on our VCR player. It was Driving Miss Daisy. Since that was released in 1989, Jeremy would have to have been at least twelve by the time we rented it. I knew there was a book out, but had never read it or heard anything about it or the movie. I knew the rating was PG, and it had won a bunch of Oscars. Because of that, it had been released fairly quickly.

I didn't know it was about the Civil Rights movement era. Having done a turn in the deep South during the 50's, that's a really touchy subject for me. At any rate, at one point in the movie, Miss Daisy is being driven down town, and you can tell by the music that something is about to go wrong. I started getting really uncomfortable, and Jeremy stopped the movie with the remote control and asked me what was wrong with me. I very honestly told him that I was uncomfortable with what I thought we might be getting ready to see.

What was that, he wanted to know. "Well," I said, not wanting to ruin the picture for him, "I lived through three assassinations in my teen years, and maybe we're about to see one of them."

I'll never forget the look on his face. "I know! It was John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln!"